Changing Console Video Modes

Gunter Wambaugh unixgeek at six-two.net
Mon Sep 19 17:52:55 PDT 2005


I haven't kept up with the responses, so I apologize if this is  
duplicate info.  I don't think 1024x768 is possible for FreeBSD < 6.
My /etc/rc.conf has:
font8x16="m.fnt"
allscreens_flags="132x25"
And that yields a decent screen (Not as good as what we get in GNU/ 
Linux mind you).  The m.fnt is from slackware (I think).  And I think  
your kernel needs
options         VESA
options         SC_PIXEL_MODE
for this to work.

I don't recall where I found this script--maybe it would be of some  
use to you.
http://www.six-two.net/~gunter/vc.sh

I use bash as my shell and put an alias to ls for colors.
~/.bashrc:
alias ls='ls -FG'

On Sep 18, 2005, at 1:06 PM, Harout S. Hedeshian wrote:

> Users,
>
>             This is my first time on this list so I hope I am  
> posting in the
> right place. I have been a Linux user for some time and I am trying  
> out
> FreeBSD as some people recommended it. In my previous Mandrake (now
> Mandriva) Linux system, I could pass a kernel parameter in the LILO
> configuration file to set the console video mode (like "vga=xxx").  
> I ran it
> at 1024x768 and sometimes 1280x1024 (depending on the computer) to  
> allow
> more text on the console. I am trying to do the same for my FreeBSD  
> system.
> A quick Google search brought up this tutorial:
> http://www.mostgraveconcern.com/freebsd/. But, I'm not sure it does  
> what I
> want. It takes parameters in terms of character-cell dimensions and  
> not
> pixel dimensions. My question is, how do you tell the kernel to use  
> 1024x768
> as the video mode without having to deal with fonts? Is there an  
> easy way to
> do it, or am I crazy to even ask?
>
>
>
> Oh, and one more thing, in Linux, the console is colorful. For  
> example, if
> you type "ls", directories are blue, executables are green,  
> symlinks are
> teal etc. Is there a way to make the console (or at least ls)  
> colorful in
> FreeBSD?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Harout Hedeshian
>
>
>
>



More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list